Share This Story!

Court rejects bid to throw out Florida congressional map

A three-judge federal panel late Monday rejected U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown’s challenge to Florida’s new congressional district map, which splits Leon County between a heavily black region and a new Republican-leaning tract.

Court rejects bid to throw out Florida congressional map

The House Ethics Committee has officially opened an investigation into Florida Democrat Corrine Brown over a number of allegations, including "fraudulent activity" with an unnamed organization.(Photo: Cliff Owen, AP)

A three-judge federal panel late Monday rejected U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown’s challenge to Florida’s new congressional district map, which splits Leon County between a heavily black region and a new Republican-leaning tract.

Aside from making Brown, a Jacksonville Democrat who has been in Congress since 1992, run in new territory across North Florida, the ruling poses a political quandary for first-term Rep. Gwen Graham of Tallahassee. She has been collecting campaign funds and working toward re-election in recent months, but the new map casts her into a conservative district that extends from Panama City around the Gulf Coast to western Marion County.

“I’m disappointed the Second Congressional District will be transformed from a fair, moderate district into two extreme partisan districts,” Graham said in a prepared statement issued from her office. “Dividing Tallahassee hurts North Florida and our community.

“Now that the lengthy legal challenges to the maps have been completed, I will make a decision as to what’s next, as soon as possible. Though the maps may have changed, my commitment to public service has not.”

Brown said she was "extremely disappointed" by the ruling. She said she would consult her attorneys about appealing, and would have a formal statement on Tuesday.

Although she could probably win in the Chattahoochee-to-Jacksonville district, Brown said it dilutes black voting strength and violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Brown was one of three black members elected to Congress from Florida in 1992 – the first since Reconstruction.

“Without minimizing the shameful history of racism or the heritage of blacks in northeastern Florida, we do not decide whether Plaintiffs (Brown) have demonstrated a geographically compact community in North-South District 5,” the federal judges wrote. Even granting that premise, the court said, Brown’s claim failed because she has “not proven that white-bloc voting regularly defeats black-preferred candidates” in her revised district.

The court said the voting-age population of Brown’s old district was 50.1 percent black, while the same segment of the east-west configuration is 45.8 percent black. But a black candidate is still overwhelmingly favored to a win a Democratic primary in the new district, and the Democratic nominee will win the general election.

Brown complained that even a reduced black population in the new district was artificially enhanced by the prison population. Her lawyers contended that 17,140 inmates are in the new district, about half of them black -- and convicted felons are not allowed to vote in Florida.

The judges said, however, that past election performance showed that President Obama and other black Democrats ran well in the new district — despite the presence of several prisons across North Florida.

“Plaintiffs have not shown that under the redistricting plan implemented by the Florida Supreme Court, white-bloc voting will usually defeat the black-preferred congressional candidate in northeastern Florida,” the ruling said. “In fact, what electoral evidence has been provided demonstrates the opposite — that in east-west District 5, the black-preferred candidate will prevail and in Congressional District 10, the black-preferred candidate will likely prevail more often than not.

District 10 is a revised district around Orlando, where Republican Rep. Daniel Webster of Oviedo was forced to move west to politically friendlier territory.

Florida voters approved a pair of “Fair Districts Florida” constitutional amendments in 2010, requiring the state Legislature to draw boundaries for itself and Congress without regard to party affiliation, incumbency or other partisan factors. The Legislature produced 27 congressional districts, retaining Brown’s north-south configuration, but the League of Women Voters and some other civic groups contested that map.

After prolonged litigation, the state Supreme Court adopted a map that strung Brown’s district along I-10, from downtown Jacksonville through Gadsden County – dividing Leon County between that area and a new District 2.

The other new district curves around the Big Bend, from Bay to Marion County. Its voting performance indicates a Republican would likely win there.

Former state Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, has already announced his candidacy in Brown’s district. Graham could take her chances there, try for the new GOP-leaning District 2, or even run statewide for the U.S. Senate when federal qualifying starts in June.

She had sided with Brown, opposing division of Tallahassee and Leon County, as done by the map approved by the federal judges on Monday.

The ruling was made by U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robin Rosenbaum and U.S. District Judges Robert Hinkle and Mark Walker.